2008 Woodie Awards
Sportacus returns, but where are the sports?
J. Owen Shipley
Issue date: 6/6/07 Section: Sports
I am back Murfreesboro. After a month off from the tedium of writing upwards of three to four hours a week, I enjoyed my vacation with gusto. Once again, almost everything I did is not fit for print in a family newspaper - I don't think that term exists- so I will simply say that my body - and my liver - barely survived. In light of that, I am overjoyed to have this opportunity to take a vacation from vacation.
Unfortunately, there is a catch, being a sports writer in June is about as easy as running a beachside resort in Ohio. While a man could certainly drain a swamp, dam a river and create a waterfront, it would take a very strange man to initiate such an endeavor when a plane ticket to Florida is so cheap. What I'm trying to say is, to the naked eye, there are no sports in mid-summer.
So, you may ask yourself (or not), why should I read the sports page at all before this fall? Because, here at Sidelines, we take pleasure in doing things the hard way. Give us an impossible and seemingly unnecessary task and we'll call it an insert - even if we know most people will throw it away immediately after opening the paper.
With that said, I feel a need to open the summer editions by telling you exactly what we will be covering before the masses return in the fall. Juicy it may not be, but I promise you it's going to be fun.
For starters, I'm happy to announce that for the first time in a long time, we will running a small national sports sidebar as space allows. As a student paper, it is our mission to cover local and collegiate stories before considering any national or regional events. Since Track and Field competitions will be the only actual university sport competing during the summer sessions that shouldn't be much of a problem. In the fall, we may have to re-evaluate whether or not there is room for national sports news but for now, Sidelines is going pro.
With the absence of any real local activity one of the focuses this summer will be to detail the off-season progress of MT athletic teams and to introduce our readers to the multitude of intramural and off-beat sport activities that take place in Middle Tennessee.
For example, did you know that Nashville has two semi-pro football teams? Me neither but my editor just informed me that I have to cover them. So look forward to that I know I will. The Nashville Storm men's team and the Nashville Dream women's team [not to be confused with the Nashville women's Dream Team led by captain Nicole Kidman] compete at local high schools in front of rabid crowds of tens of fans. I will be among them.
While most intramural clubs aren't competing over the summer, Sidelines is trying hard to increase our coverage of them during the school year. For the moment, since much of the student body is unfamiliar with these clubs, we will be writing profiles and doing interviews with the key characters who run the highly competitive student leagues.
Like everything else at MT the athletic facilities are growing and expanding. This spring, Chris Massaro announced that Floyd Stadium will be receiving a new multi-million dollar jumbotron scoreboard system. The Track and Field and Soccer stadium is set for the up coming Soccer season, the baseball team recently finished fundraising for their new stadium, and MT rugby are also getting new facilities.
To be honest, we only have eight issues before the fall. I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't get through all of these topics, but these are our goals. I am looking forward to annoying the Ricks (Stockstill and Insell) as they work to lead MT's football and basketball program's off-season workouts. I am stoked to be one of 12 people in the mid-south to say that they have seen a semi-pro women's game and I, while slightly less than stoked about the opportunity, will also cover flag football's off-season as if I were getting paid more than $6 to do so.
J. Owen Shipley is a junior English major and can be reached at myspace.com/Iamsportacus
Unfortunately, there is a catch, being a sports writer in June is about as easy as running a beachside resort in Ohio. While a man could certainly drain a swamp, dam a river and create a waterfront, it would take a very strange man to initiate such an endeavor when a plane ticket to Florida is so cheap. What I'm trying to say is, to the naked eye, there are no sports in mid-summer.
So, you may ask yourself (or not), why should I read the sports page at all before this fall? Because, here at Sidelines, we take pleasure in doing things the hard way. Give us an impossible and seemingly unnecessary task and we'll call it an insert - even if we know most people will throw it away immediately after opening the paper.
With that said, I feel a need to open the summer editions by telling you exactly what we will be covering before the masses return in the fall. Juicy it may not be, but I promise you it's going to be fun.
For starters, I'm happy to announce that for the first time in a long time, we will running a small national sports sidebar as space allows. As a student paper, it is our mission to cover local and collegiate stories before considering any national or regional events. Since Track and Field competitions will be the only actual university sport competing during the summer sessions that shouldn't be much of a problem. In the fall, we may have to re-evaluate whether or not there is room for national sports news but for now, Sidelines is going pro.
With the absence of any real local activity one of the focuses this summer will be to detail the off-season progress of MT athletic teams and to introduce our readers to the multitude of intramural and off-beat sport activities that take place in Middle Tennessee.
For example, did you know that Nashville has two semi-pro football teams? Me neither but my editor just informed me that I have to cover them. So look forward to that I know I will. The Nashville Storm men's team and the Nashville Dream women's team [not to be confused with the Nashville women's Dream Team led by captain Nicole Kidman] compete at local high schools in front of rabid crowds of tens of fans. I will be among them.
While most intramural clubs aren't competing over the summer, Sidelines is trying hard to increase our coverage of them during the school year. For the moment, since much of the student body is unfamiliar with these clubs, we will be writing profiles and doing interviews with the key characters who run the highly competitive student leagues.
Like everything else at MT the athletic facilities are growing and expanding. This spring, Chris Massaro announced that Floyd Stadium will be receiving a new multi-million dollar jumbotron scoreboard system. The Track and Field and Soccer stadium is set for the up coming Soccer season, the baseball team recently finished fundraising for their new stadium, and MT rugby are also getting new facilities.
To be honest, we only have eight issues before the fall. I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't get through all of these topics, but these are our goals. I am looking forward to annoying the Ricks (Stockstill and Insell) as they work to lead MT's football and basketball program's off-season workouts. I am stoked to be one of 12 people in the mid-south to say that they have seen a semi-pro women's game and I, while slightly less than stoked about the opportunity, will also cover flag football's off-season as if I were getting paid more than $6 to do so.
J. Owen Shipley is a junior English major and can be reached at myspace.com/Iamsportacus
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